Crime and Delinquency in the United States: An Over-All View
| Author | Thorsten Sellin |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271626233900103 |
| Published date | 01 January 1962 |
| Date | 01 January 1962 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
11
Crime
and
Delinquency
in
the
United
States:
An
Over-All
View
By
THORSTEN
SELLIN
Thorsten
Sellin,
Ph.D.,
LL.D.,
Dr.
Jur.
(hon.),
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania,
is
Professor
of
Sociology,
University
of
Pennsylvania,
since
1929,
and
Editor
of
THE
ANNALS.
He
has
been
active
for
many
years
in
international
organizations
in
the
fields
of
criminal
law
and
criminology
and
is
President
of
the
International
Society
of
Criminology.
ABSTRACT:
To
describe
the
scope,
nature,
and
trends
of
criminality
in
any
country,
it
is
necessary
to
rely
upon
crimi-
nal
statistics.
The
task
is
made
difficult
in
the
United
States
by
the
multiplicity
and
diversity
of
jurisdictions,
each
state
as
well
as
the
federal
system
having
its
own
criminal
legislation,
its
own
police,
courts,
and
correctional
agencies,
and
its
own
methods
of
compiling
and
publishing
criminal
statistics.
The
most
important
national
series
of
criminal
statistics
is
pub-
lished
by
the
Federal
Bureau
of
Investigation.
It
was
claimed
that
89
per
cent
of
the
United
States
population
resided
in
the
areas
covered
by
those
reports
in
1959.
There
exists
the
general
limitation
that
statistics
are
based
on
crimes
known
to
the
police.
Also,
the
picture
of
criminality
will
depend
on
the
stage
in
the
law
enforcement
process
at
which
statistics
are
gathered,
because
a
process
of
selection
operates
at
each
stage
between
offense
and
sentence.
As
traditionally
constructed
and
published,
criminal
statistics
are
deficient
in
a
number
of
respects.
They
do
not,
for
example,
reveal
occupation,
em-
ployment
status, or
social
class
of
offenders,
nor
do
they
show
the
existence
of
organized
crime
or
gang,
even
juvenile
gang,
activity.
The
social
and
financial
costs
of
criminality
are
great
enough
to
warrant
information
sufficiently
detailed
to
provide
an
improved
basis
for
preventive
action
and
repressive
meas-
ures.—Ed.
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